title: The melanoma antigens MELOE-1 and MELOE-2 are translated from a bona fide polycistronic mRNA containing functional IRES sequences.
abstract: Our previous studies on melanoma antigens identified two new polypeptides, named MELOE-1 and MELOE-2, that are involved in immunosurveillance. Intriguingly, these antigens are coded by distinct open reading frames (ORF) of the meloe mRNA which is significantly expressed only in the melanocytic lineage. In addition, MELOE-1 and -2 specific T cell clones recognized melanoma cells but very poorly normal melanocytes suggesting differential translation of meloe in normal vs tumor cells. This prompted us to elucidate the mechanisms of translation of these antigens in melanoma cells. We first demonstrated that no splicing event or cryptic promoter could generate shorter meloe transcripts containing only one of the two ORFs. Triggering meloe RNA degradation with a siRNA close to the ORF coding for MELOE-2 abrogated expression of both MELOE-1 and MELOE-2, thus confirming that the two ORFs are always associated. Next we showed, in a bicistronic reporter system, that IRES activities could be detected upstream of MELOE-1 and MELOE-2 and finally confirmed their translation from full length meloe cDNA in melanoma cells with eGFP constructs. In conclusion, meloe is a polycistronic mRNA that generates both MELOE-1 and MELOE-2 antigens through IRES-dependent translation in melanoma cells and that may explain their tumor specificity.
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U892, Nantes, France ; University of Nantes, Nantes, France ; Centre national de la recherche scientifique, UMR 6299, Nantes, France.
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carbonnelle
authors.forename: Virginie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vignard
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sehedic
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moreau-Aubry
authors.forename: Laetitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Florenceau
authors.forename: Maud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Charpentier
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mikulits
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Labarriere
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lang
mesh_terms: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; C533520:MELOE-1 antigen, human; C547554:MELOE-2 antigen, human; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins